Tones on Tail – Rain
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gs4MJIcjx8&hl=en_US&fs=1&]
Tones on Tail was a side project started by Daniel Ash of Bauhaus. Their discography is short enough to fit on a double-CD album, but it’s one of my favorites.
I love the way that Rain takes it sweet time building up. It’s a song that refuses to be rushed. It take over four minutes of this 8-minute song before the first word is sung. The Cure only lasted 3:52 in The Kiss, but there, it felt like an extended solo at the beginning of the song, whereas here, it’s more as if the band is setting the mood for the song proper that is yet to come.
I’ve never been one for pictures painted with music, but in the opening part of Rain, I can see the clouds moving in, the first drops starting to fall at 0:58, a lull, and then the keyboard line starts raining in earnest around 3:37. And so, by the time the song actually gets going, you’re ready to settle in for a rainy afternoon indoors.
And when the song ends on a 20-second sustained chord, well, that’s all right, because by then you’re not expecting anything to happen quickly. Note, too, that as each note is released in turn, it dies out with a glissando down that mirrors the glissando up at 0:28. Perhaps that’s the clouds parting and the sun coming out.
All in all, I have no idea what the song is about, but it’s a nice bit of mood music. And I have no earthly idea what Slender Fungus is about either, so I guess that’s okay.
I can’t remember a night in a dance club w/o hearing “Go.”. For me ToT will always equal YA YA YA YA YA YA YA YA YA.
Didn’t know it was a Bauhaus side project.